Portillo's the Colony — Restaurant in The Colony

My husband and I were very excited when we found out a Portillo's was being built 10 mins from our home. My husband is from the Chicago area and the only time I've had Portillo's was when we visited Chicago for work, but what I remember was the food being amazing! Being in Dallas, though, I didn't expect the same flavor as Chicago so I would recommend setting realistic expectations off the bat.

We went on Labor Day and checked Google to see if the wait was long (you can go to Google and they will give you a live update of how busy the restaurant is. Isn't Technology amazing?!?!). Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised that the wait wasn't that long and we were in line for about 15 mins from the time outside to the time we ordered. I will say, once we got inside the restaurant the line seemed to move pretty quickly.

The person who took our order was very nice, pleasant and patient with us. We decided to order the Italian Beef and Spicy Chicken meal (both with fries), sweet tea, Chicago-style hot dog w/everything, a Char Grilled Polish Sausage, their new Rodeo Burger (no cheese) and the Strawberry Lemon cake shake everyone keeps raving about. No judgement please and, no, we didn't eat it all in one sitting...lol!!!

Long story short, the food was great and did not disappoint but, again, I was not expecting this to taste like it does in Chicago. I warned my husband about the reviews I read about the Italian Beef being soggy so he was prepared when he ordered and enjoyed every bite of it. The chicken sandwich was perfectly spicy (without my having to order extra sauce - which I almost always do when I go somewhere) and we both thought the fries were great. My favorite of everything was definitely the Char Grilled Polish Sausage, but I'm also a sucker for grilled onions and these did not disappoint. I was impressively surprised about the shake. I thought it was going to be super sweet, but it was perfectly balanced and even my husband, who said he thought the sweet tea would put him in a diabetic coma, loved the taste of the shake.

Oh, so why the 4 stars. They forgot the peppers my husband ordered on the sandwich (I'm glad we ate inside instead of taking the food to go). I don't like their order system where you have to listen for your number. They have a screen, but when I was standing at the counter I noticed it's not always updated timely. Lastly, we had to clean our own table because we couldn't find someone to do it. I don't think that's enough to bring the rating to a 3, and since I can't do a 3.5 (I've mentioned this before Google) I decided to give a 4 rating.

You won't catch me in line waiting for an hour, but for a 15 minute wait I would definitely say this place...

This was our first at Portillo's in The Colony. We've purposely held back since it opened in mid-January to allow them to work out the kinks. Portillo's is absolutely worth the stop, and here was our experience.

We arrived at noon on a Sunday. The line was out the door - maybe 15-20 people in front of us. Not terrible. From there, it took 25 minutes to get to the front of the line. However, once we placed our order, it took another 25 minutes to receive it, telling me they were taking orders more quickly than they could fulfill them. People just congregated up at the pick up window and created an unnecessary crowd. I would opt to find a table and wait until your number is called over the loudspeaker.

We ordered an Italian Beef sandwich (number 1) and two hot dogs (number 2). There are three ways to order the Italian beef sandwich: dry (meaning the beef is plucked out of the au jus for a few seconds and air dried); wet (meaning the beef still has gravy/au jus on it when they put it in the sandwich); or dipped (meaning, your sandwich is made and then dipped quickly in the au jus). I personally like to eat my sandwich with my hands and NOT a fork and knife, so I opted for wet - a nice middle ground to start. You can also add peppers - either sweet or hot. I did both. The beef was moist and flavorful, and wet was the way to go in my opinion. The au jus soaked halfway into the bread, but not all the way, which would have made a sloppy mess.

The hot dogs are customizable. We ordered one of the two hot dogs all the way, and the other one with just mustard and ketchup (for the kids). If you're not going to order it all the way, don't order it at all or eat one at home. Chicago style is what you come here for!

We also ordered two large fries and a strawberry shortcake for dessert. Unfortunately, there was only one small fry in our bag. A woman working at the bar area was stopping by and checking on tables in between serving guests and happened to stop over to check in on us. I pointed out the issue, and she ran back and grabbed two large hot fries.

The strawberry shortcake was delightful. Not too dry, not too soggy. Would definitely recommend.

All in all, I gave this four stars. They can't help the line out the door, but they need to address the wait to get your food. Half the menu is already cooked - it's just a matter of assembling it and placing it in the bag. And if you are expecting guests to wait nearly a half hour for their food, the contents need to be correct. I will give it 5 stars once they cut the wait in half and get the...

I'm from Illinois so I know what Portillos beefs taste like. I read the comments and some say no salt. I was like, what perfect flavor beef marinated in the au jus. Not at the Colony, TX location. Service girl looked at me puzzled as to why I wasn't using the machine to place an order. I choose people over machines. She finally asked me what I wanted. After stating "Big Beef dipped, provolone and American cheese, side of sweet peppers, large fry. She waited until I was done and asked me to repeat. I was annoyed, but went slower than I did the first time. She still didn't get. 3rd time was the charm. Paid for my food. Then I saw they had salads. Not every location has salads. She said yes. Ordered a chopped salad no red cabbage, extra cheese. She fumbled the order and I had to repeat myself. Pissed! Felt like she did it on purpose. Get my other receipt, look at it, and she has cheese sauce for my extra cheese. Not bright! I saw what I believe was a manager and said Ole girl doesn't need to be at the register. Too shy and doesn't listen. I said I do not want cheese sauce. She looked at my rcpt shook her head said, I got you! Got my beef and salad. Salad was just as amazing as back home. That beef was horrible! I mean I understand why the comments say what they say. While I was waiting for my food, I noticed that a guy had a tray of meat that he needed to add to cook. Mummy if that meat don't sit in that jus, it will not have any flavor. Very disappointing! As a shareholder, I see why shares are down from 45 bucks to 9. The mismanagement is astonishing. The things that happened at the Colony, TX would never happen in Vernon Hills, IL. They are happy to serve us. It's something I noticed about alot of restaurants here, people hate to smile and serve you food. If you don't want to do the job well. Find something else. We pay too much money for bad service and bad food. Now, everyone else was very nice! Just not the lil girl taking the order. Portillo needs secret shoppers to fix the problems at these new locations. There is a standard that is missing here! I had to buy salad dressing and a beef pack to go, as I will not drive an hour there and back again. Yes I drove 2 hours total by myself to have dinner by myself at my favorite restaurant from back home. Spent about almost 60 bucks . Please save...